Secret Realm
by mindy102006
Summary: Ryne's life turns into chaos when shes taken from the only home shes ever known: Earth. Thrust into a magical world where demons, witches, Satan, and even gods are real Ryne is forced to fight for something she never knew existed. With a choice between loyalty to her heart and the chance to meet the family she never knew she had. Read on to see her love and betrayal.


Chapter 1

My name is Melody-Ryne Marie Graver, Ryne for short. I was seventeen years old when my life changed forever. The day started out normal, then took a dramatic turn for the worst. Maybe if I had stayed home from school that day things would be different today. Or maybe my new life would have caught up to me some time later, Ill never know now. What I do know is that my life will never be the same again...

I walked quietly through the hall way of my small alternative community high school, taking my time getting to the class I was already late for. I got along fine with everyone here, even made some promising friends. But today felt off to me so I kept to myself, only speaking when I was called upon.

When I walked into class there were only two other students in the room. Not surprising since it was mid-May, less than three weeks away from graduation. At the beginning of the school year, every class room is packed full of people. As the year goes on, we lose more and more students due to them dropping out or getting expelled. And oddly, I'm okay with that.

I like attending a school with less than thirty students. It gives me more one on one attention with the teachers. Not to mention that I excel farther than any student here ever has. What can I say? I'm too smart for my own good.

With the last day of school less than three weeks away, those still left attending Bay-Arenac scrambled to get their grades up, including my best friend Carter Haze. I warned her that it wouldn't be such a good idea to slack off in the beginning of our senior year. Seems she's learned her lesson now that she has to cram everything in at the last second.

Carter and I have been best friends since we first met in sixth grade. I was the shy girl sitting by myself and she was the popular outspoken girl always late for class. It seems like fate now that the only empty chair in the entire classroom was right next to me.

At first Carter thought I was a little weird; then again who didn't? I knew right away that I wanted her to be my best friend; I guess in her eyes, though, she had different plans. She had no intention of getting to know me. Just wanted to be friendly, that's all.

When the lunch bell was dismissed, we went our separate ways. I went into the lunch room with food already piled onto a tray. I sat down next to one of my other friends at the time, Aries. Little did I know that sitting directly across from Aries was Carter.

She looked at me funny, and said. "Why are you sitting here? Are you following me?"

Being only twelve at the time I was a little confused. "Um no, Aries is my best friend. Why are you sitting here?" Carter's response was: "Aries pushed me off the slide when we were kids."

Aries looked between the two of us, not understanding a thing. "Do you two know each other?"

We both nodded our heads.

Ever since that fateful day in the beginning of middle school we've been best friends.

I walked into class taking my seat near the back where Carter sat looking as frazzled as ever. Even when she didn't look her best she still managed to look beautiful. I envy her for that. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't compete against her voluptuous looks. I'm not sure if its her bronze skin that reels the guys in or the perfect curly spirals that bounce on her head every time she moves.

Sure Ive got some curves, a nice rack (as my guy friends would say), and baby soft skin. But is that really enough when you compare me to Carter? She's perfect in every way im not. How can I compete with her perfect teeth, skinny waist, beautiful brown eyes? I cant. My blue/green eyes, curvy waist, and normal teeth wouldn't last ten minutes in a beauty pageant against her.

"Good afternoon Ryne. Just work on any missing work you have in your classes." Seline, the English teacher, instructed me. I nodded my head even though I didn't have a single assignment that needed to be finished.

Instead I pulled out a book to read, feeling Carters blank stare on me as I skimmed over the page. When she wouldn't give in I looked up at her. "What?"

"I saw him." She blurted out. Seline glanced back at us, muttering something about how we needed to get back to work. Carter waited to speak again until Seline's eyes were placed firmly on the papers she was grading. "Ryne he was there! I seen him as clear as day!"

I knew exactly who she was talking about. The guy of her dreams-literally. For the longest time Carter used to have nightmares. Night after night until they were chased away by this mystery guy. She told me how he would appear in her dreams and save the night like a true prince... Until he stopped coming leaving her to fend for herself against the evil that captured her sleeping mind.

"Hes back in your dreams again?"

She shook her head in frustration. "No! When I walked outside this morning he was across the street!"

"Holy shit!-" Another glance from Seline. "He was standing there? As in the flesh? You didn't hallucinate him?"

"Yes, I mean no. Or yes and no. Yes he was there, no I didn't hallucinate him. He stood there watching me with this sad look in his eyes. Then he said 'we're coming' and was gone. Poof... Just like that."

"'We're coming?' What does that mean? And who is we?" I was confused as much as I was scared. It was great that Carter got to see her 'dream guy' again. What it meant exactly I'm not sure. Could he be real?

If he was did that mean my own demons were real? Unlike Carter I'm not afraid to go to sleep, I'm scared of the shadows. I'm scared I'm going to wake up one night with his shadow looming over me. Carters nightmares were simply that: Nightmares. I face reality every time I turn a corner because he's real even when I don't want him to be.

Please don't think of me as some crazy person because believe me, I get enough of that... I don't know his name or what he is. Sometimes he appears to me as nothing more than a shadow, other times hes shown up as a tall man in a business suite, evil radiating off the essence of him.

The first time he appeared to me I was woken from a deep slumber. He hovered over my bed watching me with eyes he didn't even have. I too stunned too scream, scared that he would take me before I ever got the chance. Terrified I sat up, rapping my blankets tightly around me.

"Hello Melody-Ryne." His voice sent shivers through out my already cold skin.

"W-who are you?" I asked him, finally able to speak.

"Your worst nightmare. And that he was.

I didn't speak to him, for I didn't know what to say. That didn't stop him from filling my head with words. Words that could mean nothing or everything depending on how you looked at them.

To me the words were both hurtful and very true. He told me about things that no one else could have possibly known. He knew things about my family, about my friends, even those who hated me. Most of what he said was true, he had me questioning my beliefs and the loyalty of those around me.

What was I to my family? Nothing.. What was I to Carter? Was I just someone to pass the time with? I didn't know anymore..

Every now and then I feel him watching me, though I never see him. I know hes watching my every move, waiting for me to make a mistake so he has something to taunt me with next... I would gladly take Carters nightmares over this.

I tuned back into what Carter was saying before she realized I had stopped listening. "I never thought I would see him again." Her eyes were off in a magical memory of her own. "Maybe this its really real... He's really here."

I didn't know what to say to her because I didn't know what she was feeling. I didn't have a mystery man to love, only an evil person hell bent on destroying my life.

"We still don't know what 'We're coming' means." I contemplated it over in my head, trying to remember every detail Carter gave me on this mystery guy. So far nothing came even close to shining a light for me.

"I don't care what it means!" She beamed with excitement, "Ill be glad enough when he comes back!"

I didn't want to ruin her excitement with my bad feeling so I kept my mouth shut, smiling at her for reassurance.

The intercom beeped over the system. "Melody and Carter to the front office." Click. The voice that spoke sounded distant and crackly, not the usual voice of the schools secretary.

"That's weird. I didn't know Lori was out." Carter said as she grabbed her bag from the table.

My face was a mix between horror and confusion. "That's because she's not."

I took the steps two at a time, glad to be out of the classroom even if it was only for a moment. I might have just gotten in there but still, it was nice not to be trapped to a chair.

Carter and I reached the office where a man stood with his back to us. My blood ran cold... I knew exactly who that was even if I couldn't see his face. I would know him any where just as I would know my own face when I looked in the mirror.

As if realizing I was there he turned around, for the first time ever I could actually see his face. I backed away from the door frame slowly, conscious of the big smile he had plastered across his face. I had never seen him smile before... Now I realized it scared me more than his ice cold voice. I grabbed Carter's hand pulling her back with me.

I didn't know if she could see him or not, still I wasn't taking an chances. "Lets go Carter!" I hissed under my breath, my grip on her wrist tightening.

"Hello, Melody." He nodded his head at me, his pure black eyes burning into my soul. "How have you been? It seems we haven't been in touch lately."

I wanted to crawl under a rock and hide until I knew he was gone. Or to stab him with a pen until he bled completely dry. None of these were possible at the moment so I stayed where I was, trying desperately not to show how terrified I really was.

"Your not here.. Your not real..." I mumbled out loud, not sure whether I was trying to convince him or myself.

"Oh I can assure you I am very real." He laughed. Looking at Carter he spoke. "I'm sorry, we haven't been properly introduced, I'm Michael Lewis." He reached out trying to shake Carter's had. I pushed myself in front of her, not letting the creep go anywhere near her.

"What do you want?" I spoke through clenched teeth.

"All in good time my dear." He brushed the tips of his fingers across my face sending thousands of volts of revulsion throughout my body. I thought I was going to be sick.

I took a glance at who sat in Lori's chair. It was a frail old lady whose eyes blazed red as fire. When she smiled I seen her teeth were shaped into perfect points.

I glanced back at Michael to find that both he and the old lady had disappeared leaving me behind terrified and confused. Next to me Carter shook her head not understanding.

"Was that-" She began.

"It was." I felt like I was shaking from the inside out, controlling myself I walked back into the office where Lori actually say in her chair. When she smiled at me I was glad to smile right back at her.

"I don't understand!" Carter plowed down on top of her bed not even bothering to take off her shoes. "First we have that encounter with your creepy stalker, now you want to go off and party like nothing even happened?"

"I don't want to think about what happened. I just want to dance and clear my mind of everything that's happened these past couple of months." I sighed, searching through Carters closet for an outfit that was party friendly and didn't make me look like a slut.

"Yeah but a party?" Lately Carter was a party free girl. She went to school, work, and baby sat for a family friend on the weekends. Nothing else.

"Look I'm going. You don't have to." I finished putting on the cute outfit I had put together, examining myself in the mirror. While I didn't look like a fashion model as Carter had I still managed look good.

"Fine..." She pulled the covers over herself declaring she was done with the conversation.

I grabbed my keys off the table where I had left them earlier, muttering to Carter that I'd be back after I was done letting off some steam. She was knocked out cold before I even walked out the front door.

I drove my car across town finding the normal 'get together' spot my friends and I claim as our own. Since our junior year we have been coming to the spot for anything and everything. Tonight there was one simple reason any of us would come here: We wanted to party. Me specifically.

As I waited for one of my closets friends to arrive I slowly gulped down the frozen drink I had bought on the way over. It wasn't even twenty minutes later when she walked up, getting in my car as if it was her own.

"Hey, girl!" She said, holding a McDonald's cup in her hand. I knew without a doubt that she had vodka in there. Probably deciding to start the party on her own. "Ready to get wasted slut?!" I didn't take any offense to her name calling. Gabrielle calls anyone and everyone a slut, no matter who they are.\

"I'm ready to have fun, not sure if I'm going to get wasted though. Dancing, adrenaline, a couple drinks. That's all I need."

"Your drinking tonight!" She said looking me dead in the way. "I don't care if I have to shove the shit down your throat!" I believed her when she said she would do it.

I ignored her comment, "are we meeting everyone else at the party?"

"Yeah I told them to just go ahead and we'd meet them up there. They're waiting at Pats house."

I pulled out of the old abandoned ware house's parking lot, driving down the dirt road that was a familiar as my one name. It didn't take long for me to get to Pats house. By time we did get there the place was booming with sound.

"Whoa, it looks like tonight's going to be crazy!" I exclaimed locking my doors as I got out of the car. From the outside I couldn't see anyone

As we walked to the font door of the house I took in my surroundings. There were a couple people passed out on the front lawn, their drinks spilling from the cups they barely had a grasp on. "Whats going on?" Gabrielle asked.

"I'm not sure..." I had a bad feeling about what was already happening at Pats. From inside the house through all the loud noise we heard a scream. Ditching Gabrielle I ran inside the house. Searching for the owner of the voice I new so well.

What was she doing here? It couldn't really be her could it?

I ran past the people passed out on the lawn. What happened to everyone? heard another terrified scream coming from the basement. I bolted down the stairs, tripping over my own feet. I tumbled down the last of the stairs landing in a heap of blood.

"Blood?" Where could it have come from?

I stumbled away terrified that it could be hers.

"Renae!" I screamed, "where are you?!"

No reply. Ignoring the pain in my ankle I wobbled to the half open door on the other side of the room. I threw open the door ready to face the worst of whatever was causing this catastrophic mess of the supposed party.

I found my younger sister unconscious on the couch, a guy a couple years older than me leaned over her. "Get away from her!" I screamed using all of my strength to push him away. He didn't stagger one bit. Actually I'm the one who almost fell over. If the guy (whose face I had yet to see) hadn't caught me I'd have made very good friends with the concrete floor.

The moment his skin made contact with mine sparks of lightening emanated off the both of us. I'd have been repulsed by the feeling if the moment I looked at him my heart hadn't stopped beating.

I was stunned into silence. He was beautiful, much more than any god or living being I had yet to see in my short existence. His skin was an ivory shade of white, his eyes as blue as the deep Mediterranean ocean. He stood at least a foot taller than me, his lean muscular body towering over my own.

He held onto me, his fingers sending pleasure filled shocks throughout my body. When I looked into his eyes I felt myself getting lost in them, falling deeper into a peril I knew existed within him.

"It's been a while..." He smiled down at me.

I backed away from him. "What did you do to my sister?" I asked, ignoring what he had said.

"Not a thing, she was unconscious when I got here." That didn't explain what he was doing here in the first place. He shut the radio off, sending the room into an erie silence."As were the rest of the people Ive found."

"Why are you even here?!"

He moved closer to me once again. "I was looking for you..." His eyes searched mine, looking for something I'm not sure he would find.

This couldn't be happening. He couldn't really be here. Last time I seen him someone tried to kidnap me. The only reason I could think he would be here now was to finish the job that couldn't be done before.

I inched closer to my sister, willing to protect her with everything that I could if it came down to it. I wanted to trust that he wouldn't hurt me or my sister, but that trust never came. Only the undying instinct to protect me sister.

"Stay away from us." I put as much conviction in the sentence as I could, hoping he would understand If I had to hurt him I would.

"Ryne, I wont hurt you." He sounded offended, "I'm here to warn you."

"About what? The only thing that you could warn me about Is yourself. I haven't forgotten how you helped them last time." The venom dripped from my voice as I spoke.. I needed to get Renae out of here.

"No, I helped you get away. Can't you remember that? Please..." His eyes begged me to understand. How could I? I could be dead right now if I hadn't gotten away from them! Didn't he understand that? It's not easy to trust someone who betrayed you before.

"Its not that simple." I sat down next to Renae, shaking her awake. "Renae..." Nothing. "Please Renae! Wake up! I need you here!"

"Melody?" Renae croaked out, her eyes half open. Renae was the only who refused to call me by my nickname, claiming that our mother would have named me Ryne if she wanted me to be called that.

"Ranae!" I hugged her tightly, refusing to let go. It wasn't until she squeled that she couldn't breathe that I was forced to break apart from her. "What happened to you? What are you doing here?"

There were so many questions I wanted to ask. So little time to find the answers to them.

"I followed him here." She looked around as if looking for the person she spoke of.

"Him?" I asked jesturing towards the guy that doomed me and saved me all in one night.

She shook her head no. "He's not here anymore. He hit me over the head with something and... and... I can't remember anything else. What's going on?" She looked around once again. "When I got here the place was filled with people. Where did everyone go?"

"Not sure. There are some people upstairs, though I'm not sure they are going to be of much use..." Seeing as how they were knocked unconscious as well. "Come on. Lets get you home."

She didn't argue with me as she sat up, wobbling a bit. I helped her up the rest of the way, conscious of my own throbbing ankle. "Ryne?" Gabrielle called my name from the top of the stairs, fear filled her tone.

"Coming." I called back to her.

Once Renae made it up the stairs I instructed her to go sit in my car with Gabrielle while I talked to the guy whose name I had yet to figure out. They obliged, nearly running out of the creepy house.

I turned back to... the gorgous guy, "what did you need to warn me about?"

"Not now," he looked around as if he didn't trust the place. "Meet me in an hour."

"Where?" I asked, looking out the window to make sure my sister and Gabrielle were safe in my car.

"Ill text you the address."

"You don't have my number-" When I turned back to look at him he was gone. "What the hell." I muttered underneath my breath as I left the house, leaving those still unconscious behind. I had bigger things to worry about right now...

Before I left my house I made sure everyone was safe. I didn't want to leave knowing that I might have some how doomed them to the same fate I knew I would eventually suffer. Out of all the things in my life, I knew a long, happy, and normal living experience was not a part of it.

I followed the directions that were sent to my phone to an old abandoned house. There wasn't a sign of life anywhere in sight. Did I have the right place? This wasn't a trap was it? I shouldn't have trusted him!

"You came." I heard his voice before I seen him. Once again I was blown away by how beautiful he was. What could this gorgeous guy possibly want with a girl like me?  
"I said I would." I replied watching as he settled more closely to me. "Now what do you have to tell me? I don't have all night." I wanted to be close to him, why? I didn't know him. I didn't trust him. I may have wanted to but nothing could take away what he almost let happen to me.

"He's coming for you."

I shuddered at the thought of him. "I know. He came to me today... If he really wanted me so bad I think he would have already taken me, don't you think?"

Shock filled his expression, immediately followed by anger... Why anger? "When?" He asked through clenched teeth. "Did he hurt you?"

"No," I muttered. "And if he did what would it matter? You almost gave me to his people before! This time he came for me! He didn't send anyone in his place. He himself showed up at my school and still he did nothing. How do I even know he's really a threat?"

Sure he scared me shitless. Even told me some promising things that made me want to end my own life. Yet here I am, living and breathing. What could he really do to me? He would have taken me earlier today if he had wanted me... Wouldn't he?

"You don't understand Melody! He needs you! He won't stop until he has you!" He was shouting now, pasting back and forth keeping his hands at his side. He stopped in front of me, looking at me as if he wanted to touch me. I waited for the electic current I would feel the moment our skin made contact. It never came.

"How do you know this?"I shook my head unwilling to listen to him anymore. "I can't trust you. I don't trust you. For crying out loud I don't even know your name!" I stepped back, refusing to look at him anymore.

The more I looked at him the more I wanted to run into his arms and kiss him. Why should have I have these thoughts? I don't know him! I have no right to think about what he looks like naked or imagine myself pressed against his rock hard abs.

Ill admit I'm attracted to this guy. But who wouldn't be? Why is it that whenever I touch him sparks fly? Why do I have this uncontrollable urge to be with him? Whats wrong with me? Does he feel the same.

When I looked back at him his eyes were steady on me. His lips curled up into a smile. "Evan." He whispered, his voice carrassing my body inside and out.

"Excuse me?" I asked breathless, willing myself to breath.

"My name is Evan..."

Evan? It was a perfect fit.

"Oh," was all I could manage.

"That's enough! Grab her!" Someone yelled from behind me.

"No!" Evan yelled, "give me more time! I haven't told her everything!"

He rushed towards me just as someone grabbed me from behind placing a washcloth over my mouth. My struggles were cut off short as I passes out, no doubt from whatever was in the washcloth.

The last thing I heard was Evan calling my name, I couldn't reply because I was already falling into a deep abyss. One that consisted of even more time with yours truly.


End file.
